By Ilya Ropshin
[REGNUM] President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree on awarding the 10th Separate Mountain Assault Brigade the honorary name "Edelweiss". This name has a clear association with units of Nazi Germany that committed war crimes. Love for Nazi aesthetics in the Armed Forces of Ukraine is not new for a long time, and the name "Edelweiss" was assigned to Ukrainian mountain shooters much earlier. However, for some reason, Zelensky legalized it right now.
"Assign the 10th Separate Mountain Assault Brigade of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with the honorary name "Edelweiss" and further name it - the 10th Separate Mountain Assault Brigade "Edelweiss" of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine," read the text of the decree dated 14 February.
In Russia, this step predictably caused the most heated reaction.
Many remembered the 1st Mountain Infantry Division of the Wehrmacht, which also fought in the Soviet Union. The edelweiss flower on the buttonhole of the division became its common name. It was about the soldiers of this division that Vladimir Vysotsky sang in the Ballad of the Alpine Riflemen. The 1st Mountain Infantry Division of the Wehrmacht was also marked by a number of war crimes in Greece: both against the Greeks and against their former allies, the Italians.
As "Edelweiss" and "Combat Group Edelweiss" was also known as Abvergruppe-218, a German anti-partisan unit that was noted for punitive actions in Slovakia.
"The Zelensky regime continues to demonstrate blasphemy and its Nazi nature. The Ukrainian brigade "Edelweiss" is an echo of fascism. And she got her name, apparently, for the zeal shown in the destruction of civilians and the infrastructure of peaceful cities," said, for example, State Duma deputy from Crimea Mikhail Sheremet.
Of course, there were those who did not see anything seditious in such a name. Like, in Russia there are a lot of objects with the name "Edelweiss": from beer, a football club and an art center to a military-sports patriotic center and even the 17th special forces detachment of the Russian Guard.
As for the latter, officially this unit of internal troops stationed in the northern Caucasus did not have such a name, and among the unofficial ones there were others - just "Minvody" (at the place of deployment) and even the "Yermolovsky detachment" (referring to the history of the Caucasian War of the XIX V.). In 2016, the official name "Vanguard" appeared. It was probably introduced to avoid those very unpleasant associations. Despite the fact that even on the unofficial logos of the unit there was never an image of that same mountain flower.
Yermolovsky detachment is possibly a reference to the early 19th century Russian Imperial Army General Aleksey Yermolov, who fought in the Caucasian War
An attempt to justify Zelensky by this is naive at best: the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other armed formations of Ukraine have repeatedly fallen into scandals using Nazi symbols. We give only the most illustrative example.
In the spring of last year, Zelensky’s press service had to clean up a photo with a Ukrainian fighter with a chevron of the Totenkopf SS division. This picture was included in a selection of photographs that Zelensky decided to congratulate Ukrainians on May 9.
In September, Zelensky again got into a scandal with the chevron of the same SS division. During a visit to Izyum, he posed with the military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. One of them wore a characteristic image of a skull and bones on his body armor.
The last such incident happened just a few days ago. Again, a selection of front-line personnel in the official telegram channel of the President of Ukraine, and on the very first fighter with the same SS patch on his shoulder.
As they say, two times is a coincidence, and three times is already a statistic. It is explained quite simply. Nazi symbols and aesthetics are indeed very popular among the Ukrainian troops.
However, in the case of the 10th separate mountain assault brigade, Zelensky only consolidated at the legislative level what had existed for several years.
WHAT IS EDELWEISS?
The history of the Ukrainian brigade "Edelweiss" begins on September 1, 2015, when the 10th Separate Mountain Infantry Regiment was created in Bila Tserkva in accordance with the directive of the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine dated July 30. Initially, Chernivtsi was determined to be the location of the regiment, but the very next day after its creation - on September 2 - the regiment was redeployed to Kolomyia, in the Ivano-Frankivsk region. Where soon a brigade was deployed on its basis.
In 2016, on the Independence Day of Ukraine, the brigade received a battle flag. By that time, the fighters of the brigade managed to fight in the Donbass. From May 28 to October of that year, they carried out combat missions in the DPR and LPR. At this time, the brigade suffered losses: 22 people were killed.
And in February 2017, the brigade went on rotation to Avdievka near Donetsk. Thanks to the film made for the fifth anniversary of the 10th brigade, we can see the stripes on the sleeves of the fighters of the company tactical group of the brigade. They also depict edelweiss. Below it is a crossed mace and an ice ax, above it are the coats of arms of Kolomyia and Ivano-Frankivsk. These are old-style patches made in the style that was popular in the Armed Forces of Ukraine even before the Maidan and before the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense thought about a large-scale “rebranding” of the armed forces.
But in the report of the Ukrainian Channel 5, filmed on February 5, 2018, in Katerynivka, in the LPR, a brigade fighter already has a sleeve badge similar to a modern one. On this patch there is a large edelweiss on two crossed Hutsul axes-bartkas.
Officially, the sleeve insignia of the brigade and its battalions were approved on November 2, 2018. The symbol of the brigade will be the emblem of the mountain infantry (a separate branch of the Ground Forces of Ukraine) - edelweiss and crossed barts - on a shield with the brigade number in the Roman numeral X at the bottom.
It is noteworthy that edelweiss also flaunts on the sleeve insignia of the more famous 128th Separate Mountain Assault Brigade.
But even before the official approval of the new symbols, on May 8, 2018, the presentation of the video “Give me a zbroyu” (“Give me a weapon”) took place - the anthem of the 10th Guards Brigade, written by one of its fighters Gleb Babich and performed by the popular Ukrainian group Kozak System.
“Boys-Edelveisi go; Take a fee from the heap," sang the soloist of the group Ivan Leno.
This chorus shows that "edelweiss" was the nickname of the brigade's fighters at least five years before Zelensky signed the decree that so excited many.
Their brothers-in-arms from the 128th Guards Brigade did not compete for this name with the 10th Guards Brigade: the history of the latter is richer, older (some historians indicate 1918) and brighter - it is no coincidence that on the sleeve patches of the brigade fighters at one time there was an inscription "Turkestan".
But the 10th Separate Mountain Assault Brigade, with its modest history, came in handy.
It only remains to add that the orchestra that has existed in the brigade since March 2016 is called Edelweiss.
But why is Zelensky just now legalizing something that has already existed for at least five years?
TROLLING ATTEMPT, NEUROSIS AND DISSERVICE
The logic of the actions of the Ukrainian authorities, especially in terms of symbols, can very often be described with the word trolling.
Five days before Zelensky's decree, a monument was demolished in Kiev to Soviet General Nikolai Vatutin, who died in 1944 from a wound received in a shootout with UPA militants. On the same day, the 80th anniversary of the destruction of the Polish village of Parosl Pervaya in Volhynia by Ukrainian nationalists was celebrated. Before that, a monument to the Soviet pilot Valery Chkalov was demolished in Kyiv.
The assignment of the 10th brigade of the name "Edelweiss" fits into this logic. These days, 80 years ago, Soviet climbers threw down the banner of the Third Reich from Elbrus, set there by those same mountain shooters.
"From childhood I remember Vysotsky’s song about the battle of our soldiers from former climbers and German shooters of the 1st Mountain Infantry Division of the Wehrmacht Edelweiss. Ours won. Now Zelensky is trying to replay everything," Oleg Tsarev, a former deputy of the Verkhovna Rada, and now a Russian politician, wrote on his Telegram channel.
Once, Zelensky himself, when he was just going to the presidency, said that he was "very familiar" with the work of Vysotsky. “The fact that we were born on the same day played a role for me even in my youth. I began to get involved in his work, thinking that something connects people born on the same day, ”the Ukrainian showman told reporters. So there is no doubt that the song about the “shooters from Edelweiss” is well known to Zelensky.
Apparently, after a noisy European tour, the promises of US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin for an early supply of weapons and the retention of his Ukrainian colleague Alexei Reznikov, Zelensky decided to once again tease Russia.
The fact that Zelensky called the 10th Brigade "Edelweiss" for the sake of trolling is also confirmed by his address to Ukrainians yesterday.
In it, he thanked the 54th Separate Mechanized Brigade. Hetman Ivan Mazepa, the 10th Edelweiss Brigade, the 25th Sicheslav Brigade, the 81st brigade and the 95th brigade. The latter was noted recently by the fact that its fighter, Sergei Marchenko, posted a video of the execution of unarmed Russian prisoners of war.
At the same time, Zelensky is a troll in his appeal, hinting at the battles near Ugledar, saying that “in all of Russia soon, it will probably be difficult to find, for example, a marine.” He pronounces the last word in Russian.
However, judging by the appearance of Zelensky himself, there is another version that explains his defiant behavior. It could be neurosis. Especially against the backdrop of warnings about a possible offensive by the RF Armed Forces. It is significant that Zelensky wrote down this appeal in a bunker, and not in his usual office on Bankovaya.
These days, when a number of Western states have been calling for their own citizens to leave Russia, and some Western analysts are predicting another offensive by the Russian Armed Forces on the eve of the anniversary of the special operation, the actions of the Ukrainian president are reminiscent of what happened a year ago.
Then, on February 19, at a speech in Munich - again against the background of statements about the upcoming offensive of the Russian Armed Forces on Ukraine - Zelensky, instead of trying to establish contact with Russia, on the contrary, said that he would initiate consultations within the framework of the Budapest Memorandum and was ready to revise renunciation of the non-nuclear status of their state.
Be that as it may, Zelensky did a disservice to the fighters of the 10th Guards Brigade, christening it in the Nazi spirit. Whatever the choice of name is explained by: trolling "orcs", love for Nazi aesthetics, or all together. After the exchange of command of Azov (an organization banned in the Russian Federation) and foreign mercenaries, the atrocities of individual Ukrainian soldiers against prisoners of war, Russian fighters on the ground are very tough.
From Andrey Chervonets:
Ukrainian "Edelweiss"
The 10th Separate Mountain Assault Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine received the honorary name "Edelweiss" by Zelensky's decree.
The 1st Mountain Infantry Division of the Wehrmacht had the same common name... The coincidence, of course, is purely accidental (actually not).
Edelweiss can be called a shop, a hairdresser, a bottle of water, a shopping center, a police squad, or even an office for collecting horns and hooves. This is fine. And to call it that, moreover, during the war, MINING-ASSTORM assault, knowing the history - this is a direct analogy can be traced.
Zelensky is not shy, the Germans are happy: tanks with crosses in Ukraine, edelweiss, swastikas and dead heads - Scholz relaxes. The conversation is no longer just about the distorted consciousness of Zelensky and the company, but about the schizophrenic-manic desire to be like the Nazis during the Second World War. Probably in the minds of these figures is the idea that by giving such names they thereby strengthen the morale of the soldiers included in these units.
"And that guy, he is also here
Among the shooters from the" Edelweiss "
They must be thrown off the pass!"
V.S.Vysotsky
Not quite the same: